The parliamentary debate came as Chief Scientist Professor
Penny Sackett
– who has resigned halfway through her five-year term citing personal and professional reasons – came under the spotlight at Senate estimates hearings.

Under opposition questioning, she said then prime minister Kevin Rudd did not invite her to be part of the Australian delegation to the much-vaunted Copenhagen climate talks, nor to be involved in setting emissions targets.

And, she said, she had never met with
Julia Gillard
, despite being the Prime Minister's chief scientific adviser.

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Prof Sackett diplomatically told the hearing the role "could be improved" but it was the government that "set the boundaries of what it would like to achieve from the role".

Opposition science spokeswoman
Sophie Mirabella
said the government had treated Prof Sackett "disgracefully" and failed to make proper use of an office which cost $2.3 million a year to run.

Science Minister
Kim Carr
said he had regular dialogue with Prof Sackett, and briefings had been presented to the government.

Australian Greens senator
Christine Milne
said the government should have sought and heeded Prof Sackett's advice.

Prof Sackett told the hearing the current emissions cuts proposed by governments worldwide were insufficient to deal with climate change.

Opposition treasury spokesman
Joe Hockey
in parliament quizzed Ms Gillard on whether economic modelling had recently been conducted on a carbon price, in the wake of one study which showed a $26/tonne price would push up power bills by $300 a year.

The Prime Minister said it was not possible to model the specific impact of the carbon price until the price and mechanism were known.

She said the Liberal Party was in "denial of the fundamentals of market economics" by opposing a carbon price.

Climate Change Minister
Greg Combet
told Parliament that just as it did under the scrapped carbon pollution reduction scheme, the government would ensure there were "significant assistant measures" in its new climate plan.

"We will provide all the support we can to those who need it the most in the process of change," Mr Combet said.

Without the carbon price, electricity prices would continue to rise as power companies continued to under-invest in the sector, he said.